Bee/Wasp stings-how much do they hurt?

Only ask as I’ve not been stung by one before but something stung me twice on the base of my neck while I was driving home this morning and it bastarding hurts! I didn’t see it as when I felt it, I swatted it away-now have a big red swelling and two red marks inside it. the whole of my neck and the top of my shoulder on that side hurts.

My memory of wasp stings are mixed up with emotions of terror and abandonment, so should be considered unreliable. I was very wee at the time.

On the other hand, I was a teenager when I was stung by a honeybee, which I inadvertently grasped while trying to close off a butterfly net around a Small Blue. It felt like an electric shock – a very sudden, intense pain shooting up my arm. That quickly turned to a throbbing pain in the finger. I think someone put something on it; maybe I just held it in cold water. I can’t remember the details. The pain had pretty much gone after a couple of hours.

I have a lifelong phobia of wasps, and a lifelong love of and reverence for bees.

A wasp sting is sharp and then throbs for a while but you may have had a reaction to it so take some antihistamine just in case. A bee leaves the sting behind and you would have had to remove it. I was stung by one of those ruddy Blanford flies last week and it was very hot and swollen but only left one bite mark that I can see and the swelling was localized but very painful.

It does sound nasty.
I’ve been stung several times, once when we’d locked ourselves out I was standing on my husband’s shoulders trying to squeeze through a tiny first-floor bathroom window and came face to face with a wasps nest under the gutter. Lucky to get only 5 stings.
Each time I’m stung I get a worse reaction. I carry antihistamines with me and take straight away, they help a lot.
Good luck with yours, hope it calms down soon.

I have had some very bad reactions to wasp stings, so they hurt and continue to hurt but I haven’t had such a bad reaction to bee stings.
I have been stung twice by the same bee which had been in the bush by my gate, entered my car when I got out to open the gate and then I leaned on it when I got back in the car. I found it on my shirt when I got to the bathroom, trying to find out what was going on. It isn’t true that all bees leave their sting behind and die if they sting you but honeybees do, I believe.
In your position, I would take some anti-histamine and paracetamol. (The vet has advised us to give paracetamol to dogs with wasp stings).

They hurt a lot, it is easy to say “just a sting” but it is nasty. Hopefully you don’t get an extreme reaction.

I got stung a week or so back when I accidentally knocked the top off a nest of sorts when moving a bale of hay and I got a sting for it. I was able to pull the sting out, so it didn’t actually go right in, but the arm was painful for several days, and red and swollen too.

I also got pinched/stung by a beetle of all things, on my thumb and that was incredibly painful for ages too.

I have only been properly stung once when I put my hand on a dozy wasp that was on my bed that hurt a lot. I have subsequently been “tagged” when they have flown into me twice. The last time I thought a branch had flicked my arm as I was shifting stuff onto a bonfire. 10 minutes later I was itching jumped in the shower as I thought it was pollen (had been gardening all day) then I started to swell. Cue jumping in car to A&E straight into major treatment area IV in with steroids and anti-histamine. Got kicked out at 03.30 with lots of stuff to take. 48 hours later had a secondary reaction hives all over go to GP yet more anti-histamine (a different one than the one I was already taking). Arm was a spectacular red colour for about a week and a bit swollen. It has been decided I am allergic – I’d sort come to that conclusion already! Now have to carry Epi-pen and anti-histamines at all times.

I’ve been stung by a bee – I trod on the poor thing barefoot – and it hurt A LOT, but quickly subsided after pulling the barb out and no adverse reaction.

I’ve also been stung by a wasp – about a week before the bee sting – on the elbow, it also hurt like hell and my whole arm swelled up and went red.
A couple of years ago I got stung multiple times by wasps – I accidentally walked past their nest and they all came pouring out and chased me, they got my legs and back/torso. I reacted to these too with huge red painful swellings, much bigger and angrier even than horsefly bites, they felt like bruises. Each time it’s taken about a week for them to go down. I’m now absolutely terrified of wasps – knowing how much it hurts and how badly I react, and the fact that they will just sting you for no good reason, I’m practically hysterical if one flies near me

Hard to know what it is from your description but it does sound potentially waspy!

I’ve never been stung by a bee but have by a wasp a fair few times. I’ve always found they hurt, something quick and sharp, then they ache a bit after.

Last time I was stung it was at a picnic in St James Park. I felt something near my arm pit, moved my arm to look and the damn wasp stung me. Then when I tried to swat it away the jerk had the audacity to sting me again!

I got bitten by something Thursday evening at an outside works do. Thought I felt something bite me then on the way home I had a little dried blood on my ankle. I just thought I’d somehow bashed myself but the next day it was itchy and looks like a bite. The bite itself feels hard underneath and the surrounding skin feels bruised. It had swollen a bit Saturday but some ice helped with that. Guessing it was a horse fly?

Could be a Blandford fly. Round here the horseflies have gone, but these little gits are causing merry mayhem. Their bites really hurt like mad. I ended up on antibiotics with cellulitis – had a big swollen area around the bites, which then started spreading. Do keep an eye on yours.

I’m allergic to wasp stings. Last got stung a few years ago, while I was driving. Managed to pull over and promptly collapsed in the car due to my blood pressure plummeting. Woke up slumped over the passenger chair and managed to get my phone out and ring for help. My poor dog was in the back and she was terrified.

Last year I got stung on the head by a wasp. My face swelled up like no one’s business, it hurt at first. My eyes swelled shut and I felt pretty groggy and horrid that evening. Swelling took several days to go down.

I got stung by a wasp last night. We have another nest in the house attic and they are everywhere. It got the front of my foot so I doused it in vinegar and while it blew up within minutes it didn’t hurt once the vinegar took effect. Couldn’t see anything this morning and the swelling has gone completely.

The trouble with bees and wasp stings is I’m told you can develop an increasing allergic reaction to the venom so no matter how many times you’ve been stung – the next might be worse!
I’ve been stung many times by both species and also two hornets which I didn’t realize until I looked at my hand to find out what was crawling over it – quite surprising to see two insects like miniature helicopters sitting there – it was their scratchy feet that alerted me. Brushed them off but they each gave me a sting as a departing present – very quick acting, electric shock type pain and then a kind of warm glow but not too bad really.

Yes this is what happened to me. I was stung as a child and had no major reaction, then stung as a teenager and got a very big swelling and then the last time it dropped my blood pressure and made me collapse. The hospital gave me an epi pen as they is a chance next time that it could get worse- throat closing etc.